The Mailbox: Readers have plenty to say on how to improve the Olympics

Sunday

Aug 19, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 19, 2012 at 6:36 PM

Editor: Now that the Olympics are done, I have some recommendations.

Ray Stein, The Columbus Dispatch

Editor: Now that the Olympics are done, I have some recommendations.

Get rid of all team sports involving more than two people. The Olympics should be about the individual effort.

Eliminate any sport involving pro athletes. Tennis has numerous major tournaments. Soccer has the World Cup. And who really wants to see a bunch of multimillion-dollar pro basketball players being handed a gold medal? The U.S. just phones that in every four years.

The major stories are always about some poor athlete who came out of nowhere and won. It’s time to re-evaluate and streamline the Olympics.

— Jeffery L. Sampson, Reynoldsburg

Jeffery: Not me, chief. I’m not big on Olympic tennis, but I dig the team sports. Did you watch the gold-medal men’s basketball game? The Americans were handed nothing and earned everything, and I say that as someone who consistently roots against LeBron James and Mike Krzyzewski except when they wear the colors.

Editor: I read Michael Arace’s (Tuesday) column concerning NBC’s coverage of the Olympics and some of its shortcomings. All things considered, it’s remarkable how well this extravaganza came together.

However, Mr. Arace did not mention my personal peeve: the “miking up” of coaches and family so that the viewing public can eavesdrop on the supposed private conversations of these “insiders.” The whole concept is silly and irritating. Yes, more and more sports are doing it, which is even more irritating.

— Jim Lanfear, Baltimore

Jim: For better or worse, the high-water mark for Olympic eavesdropping was Bela Karolyi imploring Kerri Strug with “You can do it!” in 1996. Since then, most “insider conversations” have been empty blah blah blah.

Editor: I do not normally comment on Olympic events, but I suggest the deliberate tripping of Morgan Uceny in the women’s 1,500 meters should not go unnoticed or unpunished.

This may be the latest technique used by third-world countries to get back at the United States. The runner who tripped Uceny, and her country, should be banned forever from competing in that event.

— Dan Downing, Columbus

Dan: Those dirty rotten Reds — and by that I mean the commies, not the Cincinnati variety. I will say that I was glad to see Uceny finally get off the track so runners in other events didn’t have to dodge her.

Editor: The U.S. men’s soccer team wins for the first time on Mexican soil after 75 years of games and you relegate this historic match to the second page (Thursday) and 10 small paragraphs written by the AP?

Well done, Mr. Stein. I can already hear the “we can’t satisfy everyone” retort. That excuse doesn’t fly in this case. What an inexcusable whiff.

— Mike Soto, Westerville

Mike: Let’s forget for a moment the full plate of news on our front page, including two stories on the local soccer outfit in yellow. The Americans won in Azteca, but this was a friendly and not a World Cup qualifier, and neither team used its top players. A good win, sure, but hardly epic.

Mr. Stein: The letter from Jay Ryan (Mailbox, last Sunday) in which he contends that the superintendent of (Wooster) Triway schools should worry about low test scores instead of competitive balance in athletics totally misses the point — two points, really.

First point: A superintendent’s job is to advocate for all students in the district, including the athletes. When a small rural district fights mightily against a private school in a state-level tournament and loses, and said private school has gathered the best athletes from all areas (while a public school cannot benefit from the same competitive advantage), it just isn’t a fair fight.

Second point: Students sitting in classrooms at Triway are radically different than the population of St. Charles. Folks up there wonder about their next meal,or if their parents will find a job soon, or how the family will survive the crop damage from this summer’s drought.

It’s ridiculous to compare a 100 percent passage rate at St. Charles to the passage rate at Triway. Mr. Ryan colossally misses the other side of the argument.

— Jennifer Moorefield Schwanke, Plain City

Jennifer: Socioeconomics aside, I’m among the group that believes a split would be a disaster. In Plain City, where you live, the public school’s baseball team won the Division II state championship in 2010. Would those team members not say that season was sweeter because they beat DeSales in the regular season, Hartley in the district and Cuyahoga Valley Walsh Jesuit in the state final? Didn’t that add to the accomplishment?

Ray: I don’t know why Tyrann Mathieu was booted from the LSU football team, although the (Thursday) story indicated drugs might be the cause.

Regardless, a player good enough to be considered for the Heisman was booted off the team. Such players are not lightly tossed out by coaches, who want to win to keep their jobs. So one would think there must be a real problem here.

But the “we want to win and we don’t care how” crowd sees an opportunity. Thursday’s article said “about 20 programs” have shown interest. I don’t suppose the mighty NCAA has any authority here, and probably shouldn’t.

But is there no decency, sir? Has winning — really only a chance at winning — trumped everything else? Sure has, I’d say, and there are no winners at all.

— Charlie Pickard, Columbus

Charlie: Thankfully, the talk about landing a free-agent Honey Badger has cooled since the news of Mathieu’s entry into a drug rehabilitation center.